Mixed flock feeding: ducks and chickens

needlessjunk

Crowing
7 Years
May 19, 2014
2,601
2,479
357
Georgetown, TX
How do y'all handle the feeding requirements for both? Right now I have my ducks on layer pellets and my 6-7 week old chickens have found their food. They all are free ranging my back yard together. So I know I need to switch of my girls food to something without added calcium for the chicks health. What I y'all do? Grower with free choice oyster shell? They already free choice oyster shell out. Also my second question is how do you handle the feeding and watering devices? My chicks have a container they can't scratched the food out of but my ducks have one of the black rubber bowls. My chicks have a little watered that the ducks can't get to but my ducks have a tall open crockpot insert. Is that dangerous for the chicks? I asked some questions on the chicken boards but since I have ducks it puts a new spin on things.
 
How do y'all handle the feeding requirements for both? Right now I have my ducks on layer pellets and my 6-7 week old chickens have found their food. They all are free ranging my back yard together. So I know I need to switch of my girls food to something without added calcium for the chicks health. What I y'all do? Grower with free choice oyster shell? They already free choice oyster shell out. Also my second question is how do you handle the feeding and watering devices? My chicks have a container they can't scratched the food out of but my ducks have one of the black rubber bowls. My chicks have a little watered that the ducks can't get to but my ducks have a tall open crockpot insert. Is that dangerous for the chicks? I asked some questions on the chicken boards but since I have ducks it puts a new spin on things.
To keep my chickens from scratching out the feed that they all eat I went to goat troughs from TSC. the chicks can get into them to eat but the chickens can't scratch out the feed and everyone can get their heads into it to eat. they are around 15.00 but I am on the 3rd year and they still are working great.
as for feed I use an all flock and just put oyster shell on the side for layers that way i don't have to worry about the chicks getting too much calcium or my males.

as for waterers that is the scary part I lost a chick several years ago do to drowning in a water bucket so paranoid I am, so I set up chickens waters every where I have a bucket for the water fowl and I place a scrap board across the top so the waterfowl can get their heads into but it's not completely open. So far all my 4 chicks from this years hatch haven't been in a water bucket, I even made my poor ducks go with out water in their pools for about 4 weeks till I decided I would put a large rock at the edge in case someone fell in but thankfully that hasn't happened yet either now they are 9-10 weeks old so hopefully they are past all these scary things that can happen. [I did give my ducks water for bathing after mamas would take their babies in of an afternoon so they weren't completely with out water but I would dump before I went in for the night. ]
 

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